Art
In Year 7 the introductory project provides all students with a secure base in formal elements. They learn about the history of typography and how lettering styles have changes through different periods in time. In art there are wonderful stories to be told through Aboriginal Art. Story-telling has a place where symbols and imagination come to life. Through this project we explain the origins of Aboriginal art and discuss the geographical location also considering how the Aborigines live and create their artworks. Students are shown cave artworks and discuss how pigments are made from ready available sources and how these cave drawing have played a massive part in understanding the history of mankind.
The Picasso Faces project then builds upon this understanding as well as introducing students to abstraction, explaining this pivotal movement in art history. It is also important that the students understand that all artists take inspiration from one thing or another and for Picasso he took inspiration from African culture; as at this point African artworks were being brought back to Paris museums in consequence of the expansion of the French empire.
Kandinsky then further develops this understanding of abstraction, exploring artists who are further afield than Europe, but demonstrate the connections at this time in the 20th Century. The disciplinary knowledge within this project, reinforces understanding from the introductory project.
